Tropical wood · Southeast Asia and Oceania
Sepetir wood
Sepetir (Pseudosindora palustris, family Leguminosae) is a tropical timber from Southeast Asia and Oceania. Dry, its Janka hardness is 1,170–1,410 lbf (5,204–6,272 N), and air-dry it weighs about 40–45 lb/ft³ (641–721 kg/m³). The figures are from the USDA Forest Products Laboratory's Tropical Timbers of the World, pp. 715–716.
Other names, by country: Sindur (Indonesia), Supa, Kayu Galu (Philippines), Makata (Thailand), Gu (Indo-China).
Key numbers
- Janka hardness, dry
- 1,170–1,410 lbf (5,204–6,272 N)
- Green: 930–950 lbf (4,137–4,226 N)
- As printed: “Janka side hardness 930-950 lb for green material and 1,170-1,410 lb for dry.”
- Air-dry density
- 40–45 lb/ft³ (641–721 kg/m³)
- Basic specific gravity
- 0.52–0.58 oven-dry weight, green volume
- As printed: “Basic specific gravity (ovendry weight/green volume) 0.52-0.58; air-dry density 40-45 pcf.”
- Shrinkage, green to oven-dry
- 7.0% tangential
- Radial 3.7%, volumetric 10.5%
One source: USDA Forest Products Laboratory, Tropical Timbers of the World (Chudnoff, 1979 edition), the only published source read for this wood
Strength
Bending strength is the modulus of rupture (MOR); stiffness is the modulus of elasticity (MOE); crushing strength is compression parallel to the grain. The sheet collects these from published tests: it prints 4 data sets, from different tests and sources, so they can differ widely; all are shown, in the sheet's order, each at the moisture content printed beside it, never restated as 12%.
| Moisture | Bending strength (MOR) | Stiffness (MOE) | Crushing strength |
|---|---|---|---|
| Green | 10,300 psi (71 MPa) | 1.7 million psi (11.7 GPa) | 5,285 psi (36 MPa) |
| 17% MC | 13,330 psi (92 MPa) | 1.98 million psi (13.7 GPa) | 6,725 psi (46 MPa) |
| Green | 11,700 psi (81 MPa) | 1.47 million psi (10.1 GPa) | 5,690 psi (39 MPa) |
| 12% MC | 18,100 psi (125 MPa) | 1.84 million psi (12.7 GPa) | 9,250 psi (64 MPa) |
A dash means the sheet prints no value; none is filled in.
What the data sheet says
- Color, grain and texture
- Heartwood brown with a pink or golden tinge, darkening on exposure, dark brown or black streaks sometimes present in species of Sindora; sapwood light gray-brown or straw colored, sometimes with pink tinge, usually clearly defined. Texture moderately fine and even; grain straight or shallowly interlocked; without luster; characteristic spicy smell that persists when dry; wood has an oily feel.
- Working properties
- Gum tends to accumulate on the teeth of saws, planes cleanly, rather rapid dulling of cutters, tends to char in boring, difficult to work with handtools, finishes well.
- Durability
- Rated as nondurable in ground contact under Malayan exposure and not resistant to subterranean or dry wood termite attack. Sapwood readily attacked by powder-post beetles.
- Uses
- General carpentry, furniture and cabinetwork, joinery, flooring, plywood, decorative veneers.
- Where it grows
- Malaysia, Indo-China, and the Philippines; usually found in the lowlands, locally common.
Quoted from Tropical Timbers of the World, pp. 715–716, a USDA Forest Products Laboratory work in the public domain.
Work it out for your project
- Rank woods for furniture with the species picker
Weigh sepetir against other woods on hardness, weight, movement and color, every figure from the Wood Handbook.